Customer Reviews

Yngwie Malmsteen - Guitar Instructional

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I highly recommend this dvd to all guitar players and fanatics of the great Yngwie Malmsteen--often immitated (poorly), made fun of (due to jealousy) in the 1980's-1990's, but never duplicated. Malmsteen, Blackmore, Roth, Rothery (of Marillion), Rhoads, Hendrix, Page, Iommi, Petrucci, & Fripp: it doesn't get any better than this.

And it doesn't get much better than this dvd. Although there are several other vhs-only Yngwie Malmsteen instructional videos, this is clearly the best all-in-one feature of them all. In addition, the sound is remastered and there are several cool bonus features (Steve Morse, John Petrucci). Buy it!!!! ;-)

Well i popped in this dvd hoping to get some good thorough tips and instruction on some cool speedy neo classical metal riffs. Instead, i see a brief introduction about how amazing and godlike malmsteen (and dont get me wrong, he's and incredible player!!!!) and then he talks little about the riffs he's about to play, then he just shreds away at full speed!! Yes he slows down a little bit, but it's still much too fast to understand exactly what he's playing. He gives no instructions or tips about anything he's playing. Pretty much, it's just him showing off his speed, which if you've heard of malmsteen, you've probably already seen. Good dvds would be Paul Gilbert's Intense Rock DVD, or John Petruccis Rock Discipline DVD.

I originally gave this DVD a bad review but after receiving a comment from someone in cyberworld, I figure I had better update my review now that I have five years of playing under my belt.

The DVD is rather fast paced and is basically a collection of fast riffs, Yngwie style. If you already have chops, and you like Yngvie's Neo-Classical shredding style, then you should be able to learn and assimilate the licks. As a sidenote, there is a section in which Yngie shows some "bluesy" licks.

If you were like I was when I first bought it over four years ago, then there will have a steep learning curve. You will have to practice them slowly, and would benefit from a recording device that you could use to record and play the licks back really slowly. That is what I do to learn the faster solos by guys like Yngwie and Matthias Jabs of the Scorpions.

For those that like theory, Yngvie identifies the context in which he plays the licks, for instance identifying the chords he would play the lick over and the keys in which he would play each lick. There are licks using several different scales, such as Harmonic Minor and Diminished. And, as you can guess from listening to Yngwie, he loves scalar solos although he does use arpeggios liberally as well.

A beginner or less experienced guitarist will have to think long term and will need to start very slowly using a metronome or some other timekeeping device, but once the licks brought up to speed, that person will have strong shredding skills.

Everything is subjective, but overall, I see this DVD as a repository of licks which should help you capture Mr. Malmsteen's sound. I must add that I did buy the book as well, which was of some help.

Yngwie Malmsteen is the best guitarist in the world! watch how amazing he plays, no body plays the guitar like that, he is influenced by classic music and he changed the whole idea of guitar playing.

Wow!!! I'm gonna be working with this one for a While!!! Thanks kindly!!! : )

This video is seamlesly edited with studio footage and a bunch of concert footage as a narrator hypes the living hell out of Yngwie's guitar "mastery" (wonder who wrote this?).

The studio parts/lessons are supposed to be "Master Class", but I couldn't help but think they were closer to the "Hyperactive & Attention Deficit Disorder class" as all the solos and examples blur into the same muddy machinegun-fast lick, repeated ("blues" at 200 beats per minute?). Yngwie may be a great guitarist, but the smugness and chronic show off get repulsive.

However...it's an overall entertaining video for anyone interested in electric guitar, but don't buy for lessons unless you're a solid intermediate to advanced player. It doesn't particularly inspire me to pick up my guitar and play (my true test of a excellent instructional video), but I still would've given it 4 stars...if it weren't for the carelessly enthusiastic Yngwie fans/reviews.

It is with great pleasure that I, Captain McBallsack, conduct the 6th review of the Yngwie Malmsteen Guitar Instuctional Video. In this video Yngwie instructs me that he can play really fast. Even when he does a slow version of one of his classic, ball shredding arpeggio sequences, Yngwie is still playing really fast! I am also instructed that Yngwie has very cool hair.
But by far, the highlight is the "Blues" section. To hear Yngwie play the blues is literally breathtaking. Surely the likes of Robert Johnson, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Richie Valens would be rolling over in their graves to hear such a bombasticly splendid addition to the blues lexicon.

If you want to play like Malmsteen then I can fully recommend this DVD. Only problem is that this kind of fretwork was all the rage in the Eighties, so anybody listening to you playing like this nowadays (like a lot of the Shrapnel Record copyists) they will probably just fall asleep.

If you wanna sound cool on the guitar get a steve vai instrunction dvd or Bert Weedon. Avoid this though, Neo-classical electric just sucks!